Directory

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This is a summary of the responses to my query concerning bibliography
on "TOPIC". I would like to thank each of the respondents. Below you
can find a summary of re sponses that I received.
Best wishes...
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Selcuk Issever
Ankara University
Faculty of Letters
Department of Linguistics / TURKEY
e-mail: isseverdialup.ankara.edu.tr
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SUMMARY :
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 19:57:45 +0900 (KST)
From: Myung_Hee Kim <mhkimcc.kangwon.ac.kr>
Dear Selcuk,
I wrote my dissertation on how discourse topic ("global theme") and
sentence topic ("local theme") affect a speaker's selection of a
referent as subject in English. It is titled "The Interaction of
Global and Local Theme in English Narrative". The first part of it was
published in the Journal of Pragmatics (Vol. 25, 1996). I thought it
might be related to your topic.
I hope this will help. Please let me know if you need any other
information.
Best Wishes,
Myung-Hee
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Date:Wed, 19 Mar 1997 11:16:22 GMT
From:M.Perkinssheffield.ac.uk (Mick Perkins)
Dear Mr Issever
Here are some references on discourse topic. My own research angle is
language pathology, so many of these may not be relevant to you. But I
hope some of them may be helpful.
Bates, E., Hamby, S. and Zurif, E. (1983) The effects of focal brain
dama ge on pragmatic expression. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 37,
59-84.
Brinton, B. and Fujiki, M. (1984) Development of topic manipulation
skill s in discourse. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 27,
350-358.
Brown, G. and Yule, G. (1983) Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Button, G. and Casey, N. (1984) Generating topic: The use of topic
initial elicitors. In J. M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (Eds) Structures
of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
De Beaugrande, R. (1992) Topicality and emotion in the economy and
agenda of discourse. Linguistics, 30, 243-265.
Dittmar, N. (1992) Introduction: Topic in grammar and discourse.
Linguistics, 30, 1-3.
Dobbinson, S., Perkins, M. R. and Boucher, J. (in review) Structural
patterns in conversations with an autistic woman. Journal of
Communicatio n Disorders, ,
Edmonds, P. E. and Haynes, W. O. (1988) Topic manipulation and
conversational participation as a function of familiarity in
school-age language-impaired and normal language peers. Journal of
Communication Disorders, 21, 9-228.
Ehrlich, J. S. and Barry, P. (1989) Rating communication behaviours in
the head-injured adult. Brain Injury, 3, 193-198.
Garman, M. (1994) Aphasia and communicative speech therapy: the
potential of grammatical analyses. Aphasiology, 8, 491-496.
Geluykens, R. (1993) Topic introduction in English conversation.
Transactions of the Philological Society, 91, 181-214.
Givon, T. (Ed) (1983) Topic Continuity in Discourse: A Quantitative
Cross-Linguistic Study. (Typological Studies in Language 3.)
Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Hopper, P. J. (1992) Discourse: Emergence of grammar. In W. Bright
(Ed) International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. 364-367.
Hyltenstam, K. and Stroud, C. (1989) Bilingualism in Alzheimer's
dementia: two case studies. In K. Hyltenstam and L. K. Obler (Eds)
Bilingualism Across the Lifespan: Aspects of Acquisition, Maturity,
and Loss. Cambridg e: Cambridge University Press. 202-226.
Knox, L. (1994) Repetition and relevance: self-repetition as a
strategy f or initiating cooperation in nonnative/native speaker
conversations. In B. Johnstone (Ed) Repetition in Discourse:
Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Volume 1. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. 195-206.
Lambrecht, K. (1994) Information Structure and Sentence Form: Topic,
Focus, and the Mental Representations of Discourse
Referents. Cambridge: Cambrid ge University Press.
Li, E. C., Williams, S. E. and Volpe, A. D. (1995) The effects of
topic and listener familiarity on discourse variables in procedural
and narrative discourse tasks. Journal of Communication Disorders, 28,
39-55.
Mentis, M., Biggs-Whitaker, J. and Gramigna, G. D. (1995) Discourse
topic management in senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Journal
of Speech and Hearing Research, 38, 1054-1066.
Mentis, M. and Prutting, C. A. (1991) Analysis of topic as illustrated in
a head-injured and a normal adult. Journal of speech and hearing
research, 34, 583-595.
Ninio, A. and Snow, C. E. (1996) Pragmatic Development. Colorado:
Westvie w Press.
Ochs Keenan, E. and Schieffelin, B. B. (1976) Topic as a discourse
notion: A study of topic in the conversations of children and
adults. In C. N. Li (Ed) Subject and Topic. New York: Academic
Press. 337-384.
Perkins, M. R., Body, R. and Parker, M. (1995) Closed head injury:
assessment and remediation of topic bias and repetitiveness. In M. R.
Perkins and S. J. Howard (Eds) Case Studies in Clinical Linguistics.
London: Whurr. 293-320.
Radford, J. and Tarplee, C. (1995) The management of conversational
topic by a ten year old: implications of social knowledge. Work in
Progress, Department of Human Communication Science, University
College London, 5, 110-126.
Rein, R. P. and Kernan, K. T. (1989) The functional use of verbal
perseverations by adults who are mentally retarded. Education and
Training in Mental Retardation, 24, 381-389.
Ribeiro, B. T. (1994) Coherence in Psychotic Discourse. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Schlobinski, P. and SchFCtze-Coburn, S. (1992) On the topic of topic
and topic continuity. Linguistics, 30, 89-121.
Tykkylainen, T. (1992) Conversational characteristics of closed head
inju ry patients five years after trauma. In R. Aulanko and
M. Lehtihalmes (Eds) Studies in Logopedics and Phonetics 3. Helsinki:
Department of Phonetics, University of Helsinki. 253-266.
Wardhaugh, R. (1985) How Conversation Works. Oxford: Blackwell.
Yule, G. and Mathis, T. (1992) The role of staging and constructed
dialog ue in establishing speaker's topic. Linguistics, 30, 199-215.
Best wishes
Mick Perkins
Dr Mick Perkins
Department of Human Communication Sciences
University of Sheffield
18/20 Claremont Crescent
Sheffield S10 2TA
UK
Phone: (+44) (0)114 2222408/2222400
Fax: (+44) (0)114 2730547
http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/R-Z/spsu/staff/mick.html
_________________________________________________________________
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Date:Wed, 19 Mar 1997 10:02:34 -0500 (EST)
From:"Tara L. Narcross" <narcross.5pop.service.ohio-state.edu>
I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but Enric Vallduvi
(Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain) did his dissertation work
on "The Informational Component", in which he discussed just that sort
of thing in relation to Catalan. I don't have a copy of the entire
dissertation, but I'm sure the reference section would have relevant
materials. I believe the dissertation has since been published. You
might look into that. I hope this is of some help. Vallduvi has also
continued to work in this area, and if you are at all interested in
cross-language work, he might be a good source. Also, Louise
McNally's work in focus, topic an d comment structures in Catalan and
in English is very good. She is at the same university.
Good luck,
Tara L. Narcross
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Date:Wed, 19 Mar 1997 10:16:25 -0500 (EST)
From:"Dr. Jacob Caflisch" <caflischquijote.lang.usf.edu>
Selguk: I hope this message reaches you. I am enjoying
immensely the copendium authored by our expert, Daniel I. Slobin (and
another person whose name slips me at the moment). The book is ISSUES
IN TURKISH SYNTAX, in which you will discover a whole new world of
studies on Altaic use of [ +\- definiteness], and the *cyclical*
nature of back-syntacticization (?) of relative definiteness vis-a-vis
/ interfacing with/ TOPIC IMPORTANCE as it relates to what the SPEAKER
THINKS IS NEW INFO. FOR THE ADDRESSEE. As for me, I am thoroughly
immersed in the issue of PRO-DROP i n ALTAIC (Turkish, Mongol, Tungus,
Korean, and Japanese). I can write again about the book, as soon as I
find out whether this message gets through. If not, I can ask someone
at LINGUIST-L to forward it to you. Please send me your email address
EXACTLY as it is to be written. Jacob.
*************************************************************************
***
Dr. Jacob Caflisch, Sr.
Theoretical Linguistics & Slavic Studies
Division of Languages and Linguistics
University of South Florida, Tampa
E-mail: caflischquijote.lang.usf.edu
URL: http://quijote.lang.usf.edu/faculty/caflisch.html
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Date:Wed, 19 Mar 1997 10:57:06 -0500 (EST)
From:Maria Teresa Taboada <taboada+andrew.cmu.edu>
Hi,
I saw your post on topic at the linguist list. I'm afraid I can't
contribute much, but I'd appreciate it if you could post a summary to
the list. My two cents: Li, C. "Subject and Topic"
- Maite Taboada
Maite Taboada
238 Cyert Hall Ph (412) 268-6594
Center for Machine Translation Fax (412) 268-6298
Carnegie Mellon University e-mail: taboada+andrew.cmu.edu
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 http://www.lcl.cmu.edu/~taboada/maite.htm
l
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Date:Wed, 19 Mar 1997 18:35:18 +020020
From:"Kevin P. Lemoine" <lemoinemail.utexas.edu>
Dear Selcuk, Have you read Knud Lambrecht's 1994 book entitled
"Information Structure and Sentence Form"(Cambridge University Press)?
There is a quite lengthy chapter on the notion of topic in discourse.
Good luck.
Kevin Lemoine
French & Italian Department
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712
(o) 512-471-5531
(h) 512-326-2242
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Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 13:21:53 +0200
From: kieferling.uni-potsdam.de (Dorothea Kiefer)
Dear Selcuk Issever,
I'm sorry that I don't know literature that "explains the whole
discussio n and history of works about this sucject" but you can find
articles about the field of discourse topics in * LINGUISTICS 30.1
(1992). Another interesting article is that of * Douglas MAYNARD
(1980): "Placement of topic changes in conversation." Semiotica 30 -
3/4, p.263-290. * In Harvey Sacks' "Lectures on Conversation Vol I +
II" (ed. by Gail Jefferson in 1992) you can find a discussion of some
central points.
I would be very interested to hear about the results of your Thesis
becau se I'm working about a special aspect of (discourse) topics in
mother-child dyads (-> perspective taking).
Good luck!
Dorothea Kiefer
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Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 20:28:04 -050020
From: misraelucsd.edu (Michael Israel)
In response to your linglist request, I would recommend Knud
Lambrecht's 1994 (?) book: "Information Structure and Sentence Form:
a theory of topic, focus, and the mental representations of discourse
referents." Cambridge Univ. Press.
Hope this helps.
Michael Israel